Ben Taylor
by dog-tooth
Summary: Ben Taylor just can't get enough of television. His life IS television. Perhaps Tyler Durden can change that. One-shot.


**Ben Taylor**

**Ben Taylor just can't get enough of television. His life **_**IS**_** television. Perhaps Tyler Durden can change him. (One-shot.)**

Some people just don't get the world.

Some people just don't get life.

Some people would rather watch some shitty TV programs about people's life instead of living their own lives.

Why?

Because their lives are shit.

Their lives are so shitty that they have to watch someone else's problems just so they can feel better about their own.

But does their problem go away? Of course not. It's just ignored.

And gradually it starts to fester and rot away until eventually you can't even stand the sight of it. Until it's buried so deep into your unconscious that you can barely remember.

That's right. _You_. Ben Taylor.

You sit in front of that TV night after night, until soon you can't even remember what's happening in your own life.

You forget about the office job that you used to go. You forget about the girlfriend that left you three months ago for another man. You forget about the depression and the drugs that you're meant to be taking.

All you can remember is the pathetic life of the people whose life you watch on television, night after night after night. Their jobs, family and thoughts become yours.

You're no longer Ben, the office worker with no family or life. You're Rob with three kids and a loving wife. You're Ian with your own business to look after. You're Janice, about to give birth to a child.

Suddenly it's embedded in your mind and you don't have any control anymore.

Soon you're crying as if your grandfather Jack really did die.

When Shirley and Phil get married you're smiling along with the rest of those wretched actors.

You don't know what's real.

And when it ends, when your thrust back into that shit hole of a home that you live in, you cry. You sit on your sofa with holes and cigarettes burns and you just cry.

Tears fall down your face for the first real time in ages. And you can't even work out why.

Because when you think back to how you feel and why you feel that way, you can't remember. You just remember that the last thing you saw was an image of a street and cobbles. And some strange music that doesn't even make sense.

Some shitty music that follows you around, everywhere you go.

That music started your life but it also ended it.

And you're just waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting for that tune. That tune that starts everything up again. And then it's a countdown.

Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. Only thirty minutes to live. Only thirty minutes to die.

But then one day you meet a man when you're walking down the street.

And that mans name is Tyler Durden.

He has scratches on his hands, bruises on his face and blood on his shirt. But why? Why does he look like that? And why is he talking to you? You ask him as much.

And he punches you. Square in the face.

It hurts. Bloody hell it hurts. It hurts so much that you lie on the floor groaning in pain for a few seconds.

But after a few seconds you realise that you've never had this feeling before.

You don't hear that tune yet finally you feel something. Something that's not artificial or fake.

Punch me again, you beg. Please.

He does. Again and again and again. Till you hurt so much that you can't breathe. The blood fills your nose and mouth and you feel more pain then you've ever felt in your life. But it's amazing.

As you lie on the floor with your face all beaten up he leans over you till his face is pressed up against yours.

I want you to go home now and smash up your television, Tyler tells you. I don't care how. Just do it. And when you're done I want you to burn down your house. Then I want you to get a proper job. Sort out your problems. Build a life for yourself. You need to change. Or I'll kill you. Then he's gone.

The moment he's gone you stand and stagger home. You complete his orders, smashing the television with a hammer and burning your house down with some petrol and a lighter.

I'm Ben you repeat over and over to yourself as you watch all your possessions burn.

When you walk away you're overjoyed. Because Rob and Ian and Janice are all dead. They all burnt down along with that television.

You go to a payphone and call up the job centre with the loose change in your pocket. You get an interview for a job as an assistant doctor. You've always had the qualifications but never could be bothered to get off your ass and go for it.

You order another prescription of your Prozac as well. Just in case. But deep inside you know you won't need it.

Because if you ever feel low again Tyler will know.

Because just before Tyler left he slipped a card into your pocket with his name and number. And written in scrawls across the back were the words: _I'll be checking up on you Ben Taylor. _

You don't know if its true but you know that if you disobey Tyler then you'll always have that in the back of your mind. So of course you don't. Just in case.

If you ever go back to your fucked up ways Tyler will be there.

And Tyler will kill you...

**A/N: This is something else that I've written which is quite experimental. What do you think?**

**Also just a note to say that the title of this fic is temporary. I'm gonna try and think of a better one.**


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